Sunday Feature: Great Scott

Great Scott

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BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, Great Scott

A fresh perspective on Sir Walter Scott, more than 250 years on from his birth.

Allan Little examines the life and legacy of Sir Walter Scott, more than 250 years on from the writer's birth.

Sir Walter Scott was a literary superstar of the 19th century. He dominated the cultural landscape first as a poet, then pioneered the historical novel. Best-selling works such as Waverley, Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, and Lady of the Lake, inspired hundreds of musical and dramatic adaptations. He rebranded the Highlands, orchestrated the King's Jaunt to Edinburgh, and kick-started the Scottish tourist industry.

But today he is widely credited with inventing the Romanticised shortbread biscuit tin view of Scotland. Is that a fair assessment?

Allan Little examines why Scott fell so dramatically out of public favour. Why from the 20th century, writers began to denigrate his work as prolix, dull twaddle. Poet Edwin Muir declared him and Robert Burns "Sham Bards of A Sham Nation"  Accused of being the man who undermined Scotland's modernity by popularising a bogus mythologised version of Scotland, it's a vision that Scottish writers, playwrights, and artists have since fought hard to dispel.  

We visit the ruins of Melrose Abbey and Scott's eccentric Baronial house in the Borders to meet curator Kirsty Archer-Thompson and author of Scott-land Stuart Kelly. Allan also speaks to historian Sir Tom Devine; writers Andrew O'Hagan,  Rosemary Hill and Sara Sheridan; Scott enthousiast Rory Stewart; and critic Joyce McMillan, to uncover why in the early 19th century Scott felt compelled to re-imagine Scotland's history and landscape, and promote a Tartan-clad image of the nation. A closer look at Scott's novels and journals reveals a more complex, witty and surprisingly down-to-earth figure.

Reader: Gary Cross

Produced by Victoria Ferran and Susan Marling

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Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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